.410 cartridge help

Hey.I’m gunna help a mate on the weekend with the sparrows and starlings on the trees in a commercial orchard.The whole idea is to scare them off rather than actually kill them but I’d still like to know what cartridge choices are best suited for small birds.The rifle is a single shot 410.I have never had much to do with shotties for hunting so any tips would be great.Cheers......

Chappo wrote:Hey.I’m gunna help a mate on the weekend with the sparrows and starlings on the trees in a commercial orchard.The whole idea is to scare them off rather than actually kill them but I’d still like to know what cartridge choices are best suited for small birds.The rifle is a single shot 410.I have never had much to do with shotties for hunting so any tips would be great.Cheers......

You probably shouldn't be shooting at them if you aren't trying to kill them, scaring them off with pellet injuries is not a good idea.Try blanks if you only want to scare them?

Gas cannons are already used but they find the combination of those and morning shotgun raids more effective. The idea is mainly to scare them but when opportunities for clean kills present them self I would like to be using the cartridge best suited.

Gas cannons are already used but they find the combination of those and morning shotgun raids more effective. The idea is mainly to scare them but when opportunities for clean kills present them self I would like to be using the cartridge best suited.

As for the 7-9 shot, they are pretty small birds so keep within effective range (& your ability)...they are pretty fast flyers & quick agile movers so i personally wouldnt be tryin to hit them out at 50 yds...thats a long way for a tiny ball trying to hit a fast tiny bird & not that ive patterened one out that far, but id imagine there will be some pretty big gaps in the small shot pattern out there not to mention he little lead ball has probably lost the bulk of its sting...&--like blade eluded to that could be potential to wound them...

Birds that size are not hard to kill, just hard to hit. Go smaller with the shot size - 9 or so - to fill in the gaps in the pattern. Test the gun to see where it's shooting as suggested by others. Keep your range realistic - 25 to 35 m at most. Discourage them enthusiastically - we definitely don't want them in WA